UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt suspend flights to Qatar

By

Staff

PublishedMonday, June 05, 2017

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and suspended air, sea and land access to and from Doha over its support for terrorist groups. This is the most serious crisis to face the GCC in years.

As instructed by the UAE government, all UAE airline companies will suspend their flights to and from Qatar starting Tuesday morning.

The UAE airline companies said that all customers who are booked on flights to and from Doha are being provided with alternative options, including full refunds on unused tickets and free rebooking to the nearest alternate destinations.

Earlier in the day, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt announced that they were severing diplomatic relations with Qatar and withdrawing their diplomatic staff from Qatar and gave Qatari residents 14 days to leave the country, while diplomats have just 48 hours. The UAE nationals are also banned from traveling to or staying in Qatar or transiting through its territories.

Saudi Arabia will also close the vital land border through which Qatar imports much of its food and other commodities, the Saudi Press Agency said.

The UAE banned all Qatari means of transportation, coming to or leaving the UAE, from crossing, entering or leaving the UAE territories, and taking all legal measures in collaboration with friendly countries and international companies with regards to Qataris using the UAE airspace and territorial waters, from and to Qatar, for national security considerations.

The UAE is taking these decisive measures as a result of the Qatari authorities’ failure to abide by the Riyadh Agreement on returning GCC diplomats to Doha and its Complementary Arrangement in 2014, and Qatar’s continued support, funding and hosting of terror groups, primarily Islamic Brotherhood, and its sustained endeavours to promote the ideologies of Daesh and Al Qaeda across its direct and indirect media in addition to Qatar’s violation of the statement issued at the US-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on May 21st, 2017 on countering terrorism in the region and considering Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.

The UAE measures are taken as well based on Qatari authorities’ hosting of terrorist elements and meddling in the affairs of other countries as well as their support of terror groups – policies which are likely to push the region into a stage of unpredictable consequences.